Increasingly Agitated
December 2011
14 posts
Box Office Returns Continue to Decline →
salon.com
I know there’s plenty of blame to go around here: Big-screen TVs, people’s busy lives, 3D movie prices, film quality overall, but I think there’s a major component that never gets blamed: The failure of film advertising.
When I was 15 I knew the release dates for all the movies I was interested in. I saw a trailer in a theater maybe two months before the movie, saw the first TV ad a month later along with some billboards, and I had just enough time to get interested before it was out in at least one theater near me.
Now I first hear about a movie at least six months out. In the really egregious cases it can get up to two years. (We’re all sick of *The Avengers*, right?). By the time the thing comes out, I’ve got so much trailer fatigue and actor fatigue that more often than not I skip the thing. I suspect this happens more than anyone realizes.
The clearest explanation of the Higgs Boson out there →
scribd.com
Still pretty wordy, but these are complex concepts. Anyone who’s genuinely curious should read this one!
You know, just make a really terrible device.
The Verge lists some really great “alternative design options” that Apple offered Samsung to avoid infringing its design patents:
- Display screens that aren’t centered on the front face and have substantial lateral borders.
- Non-horizontal speaker slots.
- Front surfaces with substantial adornment.
…
- Profiles that aren’t thin.
- Cluttered appearance.
“Thanksgiving leftovers aren’t the only things that get reheated this time of year — so do the “Christmas wars,” and with it people’s tempers. While you may be chided for saying “Merry Christmas,” you haven’t lost sight of the many other real threats to religious expression.”
— Tony Perkins, via Family Research Council press release.
Quick note to world: you will not be chided for saying “Merry Christmas.” No, you won’t. You never have been. No, you haven’t. The end. Knock it off.
PS: If occasionally having to hear other viewpoints or share a national holiday with other religions strikes you as a threat to your expression, you should try not being able to get married, or having religious and political leaders call you Satan.
Actually, I’ve chided people for saying “Merry Christmas,” because I’m tired of people assuming that everyone around them is Christian (and yes, even though you might not go to church or believe in G-d/Jesus, you are celebrating a Christian holiday when you observe XMas). It’s just as annoying and pervasive as heterosexism (assuming everyone around you is straight).
Good points!
“Thanksgiving leftovers aren’t the only things that get reheated this time of year — so do the “Christmas wars,” and with it people’s tempers. While you may be chided for saying “Merry Christmas,” you haven’t lost sight of the many other real threats to religious expression.”
—
Tony Perkins, via Family Research Council press release.
Quick note to world: you will not be chided for saying “Merry Christmas.” No, you won’t. You never have been. No, you haven’t. The end. Knock it off.
PS: If occasionally having to hear other viewpoints or share a national holiday with other religions strikes you as a threat to your expression, you should try not being able to get married, or having religious and political leaders call you Satan.
